Recent content by adiggy93

alright. thank you so much for the help :)

a friend of mine came up with this as the answer. I'm not sure if it's right though. Va = - Vb so let's just write Vi as V V²/R = GM/R² V = √(GM/R) now using the formula for an inelastic equation to find Vf mV - 2mV = 3mVf Vf = -V/3 replace v with √(GM/Ri) Vf = -[√(GM/Ri)]/3 Then move on...

By plugging the speed in do you just mean putting in the variable and manipulating the formula so the radius is isolated? Because the speed itself is unknown even though I know the speeds are the same.

Ah ok. But now I have to find the orbit radius but in terms of the quantities given to me in the problem, which were just m & 2m.

but how? the masses of the satellites cancel out and the radius of orbit is unkown.

The formulas that I learned were mv^2/r = GMm/r^2

Homework Statement Two satellites have mistakenly been put in identical Earth orbits of radius R. Satellite A with mass "m" is orbiting clockwise while satellite B with mass "2m" is orbiting counterclocwise. The two satellites have a head on collision and move as one body after the collision...